VANCOUVER - Dave Nonis says he wouldn't have done anything different as the general manager of the Vancouver Canucks and the NHL team is close to succeeding in its goal of winning a Stanley Cup.
Nonis was fired as the Canucks general manager and senior vice-president Monday, just over a week after the team missed the NHL playoffs for the second time in three years.
''I think I worked pretty hard to do the right things for this organization,'' Nonis said during a news conference Wednesday. ''Would I do things differently? No.
''Everyone has changes they would make over time, there are tweaks you would make. In terms of what we are trying to do here, would I changes things? No I wouldn't. We wanted to have a team here that would win four playoff rounds, not one. If you look at what we are trying to accomplish, I think we were pretty far down the road.''
Canucks owner Francesco Aquilini told a news conference Tuesday that no ''one specific thing'' led to Nonis being fired. But Aquilini said he wants the new general manager to possess the leadership skills to build the Canucks into a competitive team that can win the Stanley Cup.
He also said missing the playoffs was unacceptable.
Nonis said even now he wouldn't trade away the team's young prospects to make the playoffs and keep his job.
''If it was make the playoffs or be fired, I wouldn't trade away our best young players to save my skin,'' he said. ''That's a pretty dangerous cycle to get into. If you want to win you have to do the hard things.
''This team is pretty well positioned to take a serious step forward. If they hire the right person there is no reason to think that can't happen. I hope it does because then I will be able to look back and say those are the pieces I put there.''
Nonis spoke calmly during the news conference but at times there were hints of emotion in his voice. For the time being he plans to take his family on a vacation in Hawaii but wants to get another job in the NHL soon.
Nonis was hired May 6, 2004. During his term Vancouver had a 130-91-25 record. Sandwiched between not making the playoffs the Canucks set a team record with 49 wins and 105 points and finished first in the Northwest Division in the 2006-07 season.
A native of the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby, Nonis's biggest coup as GM was trading the disruptive Todd Bertuzzi for goaltender Roberto Luongo prior to the 2006 season. He also signed free agent defenceman Willie Mitchell, drafted defenceman Alex Edler and found diamond-in-the-rough forward Alex Burrows.
Among Nonis's failures was never finding the players to give the Canucks some scoring punch, not solving the team's lack of depth at centre, his free-agent signing of Marc Chouinard, and not finding the winger to compliment Swedish twins Daniel and Henrik Sedin.
The search for Nonis's replacement has already started.
Some candidates include Steve Tambellini, a former Canuck player who is now vice-president and assistant general manager; Mike Gillis, a former player and current player agent; Doug Armstrong, the former Dallas Stars GM; and Jim Nill, the assistant GM and vice-president with the Detroit Red Wings.
Nonis said Tambellini should get the GM job.
Tambellini will oversee the hockey operations until a decision is made.